{"id":153194,"date":"2025-09-19T00:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T00:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153194\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T00:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T00:14:07","slug":"sfu-physicists-create-new-electrically-controlled-silicon-based-quantum-device-sfu-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/153194\/","title":{"rendered":"SFU physicists create new electrically controlled silicon-based quantum device – SFU News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pioneering team of scientists at Simon Fraser University have created a new type of silicon-based quantum device controlled both optically and electrically, marking the latest breakthrough in the global quantum computing race.<\/p>\n

Published in the journal\u00a0Nature Photonics<\/a>, researchers at the SFU Silicon Quantum Technology Lab and leading Canada-based quantum company Photonic Inc. reveal new diode nanocavity devices for electrical control over silicon colour centre qubits.<\/p>\n

The devices have achieved the first-ever demonstration of an electrically-injected single-photon source in silicon. The breakthrough clears another hurdle toward building a quantum computer \u2013 which has enormous potential to provide computing power well beyond that of today\u2019s supercomputers and advance fields like chemistry, materials science, medicine and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously, we controlled these qubits, called T centres, optically (with lasers),\u201d says Daniel Higginbottom, assistant professor of physics. \u201cNow we\u2019re introducing electrical control as well, which increases the device capability and is a step toward applications in a scalable quantum computer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SFU lab\u2019s leads, Stephanie Simmons and Mike Thewalt, co-founded Photonic Inc., to develop commercial-scale quantum computers and quantum networks.<\/p>\n

The company, which recently announced plans to establish a research and development facility in the U.K., was an integral partner in the latest study.<\/p>\n

Christian Dangel, manager, quantum devices in the Integrated Photonics team at Photonic Inc. and a co-author of the manuscript says, \u201cThis project was a great opportunity to leverage Photonic\u2019s advanced fabrication capabilities and test their performance in next-generation devices in a research environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers at the\u00a0Silicon Quantum Technology Lab<\/a>\u00a0were among the first in the world to explore using silicon colour centres for quantum technology.<\/p>\n

Developing quantum technology using silicon provides opportunities to rapidly scale quantum computing. The global semiconductor industry is already able to inexpensively manufacture silicon computer chips at scale, with a staggering degree of precision. This technology forms the backbone of modern computing and networking, from smartphones to the world\u2019s most powerful supercomputers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur colleagues Stephanie Simmons and Mike Thewalt first proposed silicon colour centres as a platform for quantum computing at a time when very few people were thinking about them at all,\u201d says Higginbottom.<\/p>\n

Now, national governments, including Canada through its National Quantum Strategy, major universities and corporations like IBM, Google and Microsoft are spending billions of dollars in a scramble to be first out of the gate with a scalable quantum computer.<\/p>\n

Higginbottom says being at the forefront of the field has been a thrilling experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fits into this trajectory that we’ve been on. In 2020, SFU first introduced silicon T centers for quantum applications. In 2022, we integrated Single T centers with patterned nanophotonic devices,\u201d he says. \u201cBut those devices didn’t have any interfaces or controls. Now we’re controlling them optically and electronically. We’re unlocking some of the capabilities that you need to build a useful computer out of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pioneering team of scientists at Simon Fraser University have created a new type of silicon-based quantum device…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[64,63,257,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-153194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-computing","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}